The
SWATCH-FIVB World Tour returns to Warsaw for the second-straight
season, but Polish capital will entertain the world's best women's
Beach Volleyball players at the start of the season after staging an
event during the last part of the 2006 campaign. The inaugural
Warsaw SWATCH stop featured an All-Chinese finale as Tian Jia and
Wang Jie won their second-straight FIVB title by defeating their
younger rivals Xue Chen and Zhang Xi for the gold medal. The
Warsaw stop was the third of three-straight FIVB events in Poland in
2006 as Stare Jablonki hosted the men in early August followed by
the SWATCH-FIVB U21 World Championships two weeks later in Myslowice.

In
addition to the All-Chinese finale, the 2006 Warsaw event also
featured the first-ever "final four" appearance by a women's team
from Russia while Katarzyna Urban and
Joanna Wiatr, 2004 SWATCH-FIVB U18 World Champions, won Poland's
first-ever women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour Main Draw match.
Alexandra Shiryaeva and Natalya Uryadova, who gained a "wild card"
entry for the 2006 Warsaw Open after winning the European
Championships a week earlier in the Netherlands, became the first
Russian team to compete in a "final four" in the 15-year history of
the women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour event.

Brazilians
captured the gold medals in Stare Jabloki and Myslowice, which
hosted the SWATCH-FIVB U21 World championships. Reigning
Olympic champions Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos won their second
Stare Jablonski gold medal. In Myslowice two weeks later,
Pedro Salgado and Bruno Schmidt won the men's U21 title after Carolina
Aragao and Barbra Figueiredo Seixas claimed
the women's title.

A city taking full advantage of the tremendous and unique
opportunities arising from the emergence of the free market and the
development of democracy, Warsaw is one of the fastest growing
cities in Europe as Poland's capital has seen the value of the city’s
development projects surpass US$5-billion. Warsaw, a city with a
population of nearly two-million, is the country's largest
university and research centre with an enormous and highly skilled
workforce. Warsaw’s history and climate impress the visitors, while
its uniqueness interests them. In Warsaw, influences of Western and
Eastern Europe culture cross. Historic buildings, palaces, churches
and architectural complexes, destroyed during the War, have been
reconstructed with great care. The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) appreciated Warsaw
Monuments and its relics, and honored the City by putting the
Historic Centre of Warsaw on the World Heritage List. Located on
the Vistula River and roughly 350 km from both the Baltic Sea coast
and the Carpathian Mountains, Warsaw is home to over 30 theatres,
including the National Theatre and Opera and the National
Philharmonic Orchestra. Warsaw was founded in ninth century. It
has been said that Warsaw, together with Frankfurt, London and
Paris, is one of the tallest cities in Europe. Warsaw is also the
home of 11 of the tallest skyscrapers in Poland, including nine
that are office buildings. The centrally located tallest structure,
the Palace of Culture and Science, is the fourth tallest building in
the European Union.